Steam & Excursion > It Must Have Been Steam Trains Like This That Inspired This Poet!

TRAVEL   by  Edna St. Vincent Millay - 1892-1950

The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing;
Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,
No matter where it's going.


Martin

Guy Dunscomb captured the poet's sentiment when he took this fine photo, in September, 1961 of Sierra Railroad 2-8-0 #28 and her mixed freight bound for Jamestown, California.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/19 04:07 by LoggerHogger.

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Lucius Beebe often quoted this in his books.     (Who even remembers him today?)

Keystone1 Wrote:
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> Lucius Beebe often quoted this in his books.    
> (Who even remembers him today?)

Raises hand......

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

> > Lucius Beebe often quoted this in his books.  
>  
> > (Who even remembers him today?)
>
> Raises hand......

I do!

Martin:
Thanks, for this and all your imaginative photo captions.
Yes to the poem and to Lucius Beebe.
One fine day I got a tour of the Rio Grande Southern "Rico" business car at Knott's Berry Farm in CA, and remembered that he and Charles Cleeg were guests of Reciever (Miller?) on a tour of the RGS back in the days when such magic actually happened.

When I was a young railfan I didn’t appreciate Beebe’s wordy, romantic descriptions. I was interested in the nuts and staybolts of the steam locomotive. I wanted the power of the Big Boy and the Allegheny with hundreds of cars. 
Then I started noticing small trains in the country, like this Sierra RR photo and I re-read Beebe and Clegg. Now I understand.
From “When Beauty Rode the Rails” :
Singing through the forests,
Rattling over Ridges,
Shooting under arches,
Rumbling over bridges,
Whizzing through the mountains
Buzzing o’er The vale.
Bless me! This is pleasant,
Riding on the rail!

                      John Godfrey Saxe

Good one.  I have never seen that before.

Martin

I remember Beebe well.   First railroad "photo" books I ever saw were his early ones.

Raises hand...  My first book in the 50's was Beebe, I have most of them in multiples now and still have trouble comprehending some of the prose. Also made me a 3/4 wedge shooter that I have tried years now to break.

MP4093 Wrote:
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> Also made me a 3/4 wedge shooter that I
> have tried years now to break.

My wife calls pictures like that "Railroad mug shots".

I remember Lucius Beebe and thoroughly enjoy his books and phraseology.

Don Allender